Clarke Graduates' Salaries Among Highest

June 24, 2013: AffordableCollegesOnline.org has released a list of 36 Catholic colleges with graduates who earn high starting salaries, and that list includes Clarke University.

To compile its list, ACO reviewed four-year, fully-accredited private institutions with average starting salaries for graduates of more than $30,000 per year. The website also looked at mid-career salary averages as well as the overall return on investment for the degree.

Clarke ranked 35th on the list. It is the only college or university in Iowa that achieved a ranking. ACO said Clarke graduates have a starting salary of $35,700.

“We work hard to prepare our graduates to be career and life ready,” said Lorie Murphy-Freebolin, Clarke director of counseling and career services. “This survey attests to the marketability of Clarke graduates.”

ACO compiled a list of schools meeting its criteria by using the following authoritative data sets:

• IPEDS (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds), the primary federal source for data on colleges, universities and technical and vocational postsecondary schools in the U.S.

• Carnegie Classification (http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org), a framework widely used in the study of higher education, both as a way to represent and control for institutional differences, and also in the design of research studies to ensure adequate representation of sampled institutions, students or faculty.

“In this climate of soaring higher education costs, prospective students should know that it’s quite possible to obtain a great education that lands them a well-paying job” says ACO founder Dan Schuessler. “These Catholic schools leave with the skills and education needed to earn high starting salaries in great careers.”